Hello All!
I have been busy taking care of my sick little bugs who got stomach viruses this past week.
After taking a little break from my weekly posts I decided to come back fresh with a full on confession post!
First off, I have had a lot on my mind about all different types of things and I feel like writing them down really helps me reflect and organize my thoughts.
I guess that is why I like to blog to begin with, and really the original mindset behind starting my blog, 7 years ago!
My good friend was casually blogging about her house and her dog, and since I had just gotten married, I figured it would be fun to document and share my life as a newlywed. My first blog name was called "Music and Life" until we moved to the suburbs and I decided to change it to "The Simmonds in the Suburbs". I became more involved with blogging once I realized how many other young newlywed gals I kept finding who were in a similar time in their life. I started to really enjoy reading about their lives and learning about the newest trends in home decor, fashion, and diets which was actually the beginning of "Lifestyle blogging" as well as "Commercial Blogging". These bloggers were not only sharing so much of their lives, but they were starting to profit from their posts by linking the products/clothing they were posting about.
As much as I was enjoying being a part of this community, I must have been so naive because I had a genuine interest and fascination with these bloggers and their lives. I never once felt jealous or compared myself to them (mainly because I was very focused on my career which was a full time job plus part time job on the side) this was like an escape for me. Kind of like Facebook was for a very long time for me, I never saw it in a negative light and enjoyed it for purely transparent reasons. Rarely did my feelings get hurt to where I wanted to completely shut it out.
However, I can't tell if it is because the blogging has become so commercial or most of the original bloggers who peaked a few years back don't blog anymore, I am just straight disappointed in the blogging world, to the point of I might want to just write my own posts, but not follow others blogs. My reading list has become shorter and shorter and the creativity and originality of the appeal to blogging has worn off. I admit, at one point I was feeling the pressure to post more, and to make sure to post about the things that were popular in the blogging world, but I think after I noticed how much you have to "sell your soul" to the blogging devil, I decided to back off and do it to make myself happy.
This all comes after going into a GOMI binge this past weekend where I learned quite a bit about several bloggers who I used to think lived these fabulous lives and enjoyed getting to know them through the internet. From several divorces and deaths, to LikeToKnow.it slaves, it seems like the higher you are in the blogosphere the more miserable your life really is.
Whether there is a correlation between the New Year and a new mind set or the fact that we have a new president so it feels like its time for change, I am not sure, but I am yearning for a change. I like to think that I am an optimistic person who gives people the benefit of the doubt, but I am excited for what is ahead and part of this mind set is that I want to share what is absolutely necessary, not just the happiest or most fabulous, and I want to believe that blogging is still fun for me and that the bloggers I follow are actually good (and genuine) people.
Maybe I need to stay away from GOMI, maybe people need to check themselves, but for sure I think there is a major issue in the blogging world with people being fake and people feeling like they need to keep up with the Jones's either way I look forward to hearing from you when I do post, and in many ways, I am perfectly happy with the way my blogging journey has been.
Hope you are all having a great Monday and good luck this week!
~Mrs. S
